Coping with an unjust fate: The case of structural unemployment

Becoming a victim of structural unemployment means suffering an unjust fate. The present research examines the cognitive reactions subjects use to protect their belief in a just world and the related effects on their actual well-being within a sample of unemployed blue-collar workers in East Germany (all female). Results showed that the belief in a just world was positively correlated with attributing one’s unemployment to one’s own behavior and negatively with asking “why me?”, but uncorrelated with subjects’ readiness to change into another profession in order to get employed. Just world belief and depression were negatively related for those who either avoided the “why me?” question or who found an answer to it; but just world belief and depression was positively related for those women ruminating about an unanswered “why me?”. Results are consistent with the idea that the belief in a just world plays a significant role in the unemployed person’s coping process.     

柴郁温胆汤及其拆方对慢性应激抑郁大鼠的作用

目的 研究柴郁温胆汤及其拆方对慢性应激抑郁模型大鼠的治疗作用。方法 选择旷场行为学评分相近的56只大鼠,随机分为正常组、模型组、柴郁温胆汤组、调气血组、化痰组、养心脾组、马普替林组,每组8只,以孤养联合慢性不可预见性轻度应激方法复制大鼠抑郁模型,对大鼠进行旷场行为学测定并评分,对大鼠进行糖水消耗实验并测定体质量变化,并采用高效液相色谱-电化学方法检测大鼠大脑前额叶脑皮质去甲肾上腺素(norepinephrine,NE)、5-羟色胺(5-hydroxytryptamine,5-HT)的含量。结果 模型组大鼠旷场行为评分水平活动和垂直活动均显著下降(P<0.05,或P<0.01),蔗糖水消耗量明显下降(P<0.01),体质量增长缓慢(P<0.05,或P<0.01),脑内NE、5-HT含量降低（P<0.05）。柴郁温胆汤及部分拆方能显著改善模型大鼠的行为学变化（P<0.05,或P<0.01),增加大鼠脑内NE、5-HT的含量（P<0.05）。〖JP〗结论 柴郁温胆汤及其拆方具有抗抑郁作用,其中全方的抗抑郁作用优于各拆方。     

社区老年抑郁症患者中医体质与辨证分型临床特征研究

目的 研究社区老年抑郁症患者的中医证候学特征临床,为抑郁症的临床治疗和健康保健提供依据。方法 采用多阶段随机抽样方法,抽样调查上海市浦东新区5个街镇25个村居委会55岁以上常住人口,筛查老年抑郁症,再对抑郁症患者进行中医体质辨识和辨证分型,考察其中医体质类型、证型、临床分型的关系。结果 抽样4 600例,回收有效问卷4 047份,筛查出抑郁症患者519例,其体质类型以气郁质、阳虚质、气虚质最多,分别是122、99、99例,此3类体质占抑郁症总数的61.66%,其次是平和质、阴虚质、血瘀质、痰湿质、湿热质、特禀质,分别为94、37、26、18、17、7例。中医证型以肝郁气滞型最多,为141例,其次是肝郁脾虚型、心脾两虚型、肝肾阴虚型,分别是132、77、59例。结论 老年抑郁症多为“情志之郁,因郁而病”,初起以气滞气郁为主,多为实证,久则由实转虚,导致脏腑气血阴阳亏虚。     

Doing Nothing is Sometimes Worse: Comparing Avoidant versus Approach Coping Strategies with Peer Victimization and Their Association to Depression and Suicide Ideation

ABSTRACT

Peer victimization is a major stressor adolescents often face in the school environment, and has been linked to depression and suicidal risk. This study analyzed the associations between three behavioral coping strategies (avoidance, seeking social support from adults/peers, and retaliation) and depression and suicidal ideation. Participants included 4,254 victimized students who were part of the Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe (SEYLE) study that compared three school-based prevention interventions and collected information on health risk behaviors in adolescents from 11 European countries. Results showed behavioral avoidance to be associated with an increase in levels of depression, as compared to the other coping strategies (adult social support, peer social support, retaliation). Seeking social support from adults was associated with lower depression and suicidal ideation rates. A more than 25% increase in suicidal ideation was associated with behavioral avoidance, compared to seeking social support from adults. By contrast, retaliation to peer victimization was not found to be associated with increased depression or suicidal ideation. The findings support the Coping Deficit model and may suggest that abstaining by doing nothing when victimized can be associated with certain adverse emotional outcomes.     

Perceptions of Racism and Depressive Symptoms in African American Adolescents: The Role of Perceived Academic and Social Control

Experiences with racism are a common occurrence for African American youth and may result in negative self perceptions relevant for the experience of depressive symptoms. This study examined the longitudinal association between perceptions of racism and depressive symptoms, and whether perceived academic or social control mediated this association, in a community epidemiologically-defined sample of urban African American adolescents (N = 500; 46.4% female). Structural equation modeling revealed that experiences with racism were associated with low perceived academic control, which in turn was associated with increased depressive symptoms. Findings suggest that experiences with racism can have long lasting effects for African American youth’s depressive symptoms, and highlight the detrimental effects of experiences with racism for perceptions of control in the academic domain. Implications for intervention are discussed.

“A View You Won’t Get Anywhere Else”? Depressed Mothers, Public Regulation and ‘Private’ Narrative

The existence of ‘postnatal’ or maternal depression (PND) is contested, and subject to various medico-legal and cultural definitions. Mothers remain subject to complex systems of scrutiny and regulation. In medico-legal discourse, postnatal distress is portrayed as a tragic pathology of mysterious (but probably hormonal) origin. A PND diagnosis denotes ‘imbalance’ in the immediate postnatal period, although women experience increased incidence of depression throughout maternity. Current treatment patterns emphasise medication and tend to elide the perspective of the individual sufferer in favour of a blanket disease model. I emphasise the need for a feminist reassessment of maternal distress and the means available to ‘testify’ to its forms, and argue for PND to be analysed in biopolitical terms, perhaps as a ‘habitus’ materialising the low status and pervasive privatisation of Western mothers.

The only solution is revolution: the Spanish Confederación Nacional de Trabajo and the problem of unemployment in Republican Spain, 1931–1933

Although the Great Depression has been the subject of much research, focus normally centers on the impact instead of the tactics developed by working-class organizations to tackle the problems it caused, specifically unemployment. Recent research has sought to fill this gap, but numerous areas remain uncovered. This paper covers two of these: the situation in Spain and the reaction of anarcho-syndicalist union – the Confederación Nacional de Trabajo. Spain presents an anomalous case; a country that saw the replacement of a semi-fascist dictatorship by a democracy in the 1930s. Furthermore, the fact that the initial government of the Spanish Second Republic included the Socialists provides an opportunity of comparing and contrasting the positions and policies of reformist and revolutionary workers’ organizations. The study is based on predominantly on articles appearing in the CNT newspaper Solidaridad Obrera. The conclusion reached is that for the CNT rising unemployment was a symptom of an irreversible trend in a failing capitalist system, which could only be solved by the revolutionary overthrow of that system. Nonetheless, the union had to present plausible solutions to ameliorate the conditions of the workers to attract the unemployed and thus, create a force strong enough to lead that revolutionary change.     

Interpersonal Sensitivity, Romantic Stress, and the Prediction of Depression: A Study of Inner-City, Minority Adolescent Girls

The role of interpersonal sensitivity in the relation between romantic stress and depression was examined in 55 adolescent girls from an inner-city high school. Depression, interpersonal sensitivity, and chronic and episodic romantic stress were measured at two time points, 6 months apart. Interpersonal sensitivity was found to moderate the longitudinal relation between romantic stress (both chronic and episodic) and depression. In contrast, interpersonal sensitivity did not potentiate depressive responses to non-romantic interpersonal stress, suggesting particular importance of stress in the romantic domain for adolescent girls. Results indicate that girls' sensitivities to romantic relationship stress should be specifically addressed in depression prevention and intervention programs.Received her PhD from the University of Southern California. Research interests include the influence of romantic relationship factors, such as romantic stress and dating violence, on the development of depression during adolescence.Received her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. Research interests include the interplay between adolescent depression, personality disorder symptoms, and interpersonal variables including adjustment in friendships and romantic relationships.Research interests include cognitive and interpersonal factors in adolescent depression.     

Vulnerability to Friends’ Suicide Influence: The Moderating Effects of Gender and Adolescent Depression

This paper examines whether severity of depression reduces or intensifies the relationship between friends’ suicide attempt and adolescent's own attempt to commit suicide, and whether there are gender differences in this interrelationship. Using logistic regression and data from a nationally representative sample of adolescents studied at 2 points in time, this study yielded significant findings. First, friends’ suicide attempt and adolescent depression each predicts adolescent's own attempt to commit suicide, and these effects are similar for both boys and girls. Second, highly depressed adolescents are less likely than low- or nondepressed adolescents to attempt suicide when their friends attempt suicide, and this relationship is observed mainly among adolescent boys. Finally, for adolescent girls, depression reduces the relationship between friends’ suicidal attempt and adolescent's own attempt but this effect is not statistically significant. These results are discussed in light of their theoretical importance and policy implications.Professor of Sociology at San Diego State University. Has published in the areas of crime/delinquency, drug use/abuse, intergenerational processes, and psychosocial stress. Recent publications have appeared in Western Criminology Review, Social Psychology Quarterly, Sociological Inquiry, Journal of Adolescent Research, and Youth and Society.     

Influences and Mediators of the Effect of Poverty on Young Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

Data from a sample of young adolescents between the ages of 10 and 12 years (N = 898) from the mother–child data set of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth were analyzed in a study of influences that explain the relation between poverty and depressive symptoms measured 2 years later. Other variables that predicted youth depressive symptoms were also identified. Results indicated that neighborhood problems, nonparticipation in outside school and neighborhood activities, residing with mothers who exhibited depressive symptoms, and mother's use of physical punishment were partial mediators of the effect of poverty on depressive symptoms 2 years later. Youth health status, lower levels of school satisfaction, marital-partner conflict, and father's emotional support also predicted depressive symptoms. The findings indicate that youth depressive symptoms are multiply determined and that poverty can adversely affect young adolescents in many ways.